Finally

We finished cleaning the old apartment around 9:00 last night and hauled the last load into the new place around 10:00. The move completely sucked ass, but we're done! Yippee! Now the unpacking fun begins...

RBOC

• I'm now a little over two weeks post-surgery. Thankfully, my digestive system has mostly returned to normal (thanks, Meta!), but I still don't know how it will react to anything greasy or to alcohol (I've been warned there may be a nasty reaction). I'm not too worried about the greasy food, as I rarely eat it anyway, but I'm little concerned about the alcohol - tis the season of margaritas! I think I'll probably have my first one at home... just in case. :) I had my follow up appointment with the surgeon today; he said everything looks good & I should be completely back to normal within a month (there's still a lot of bruising & I still have very little energy).
  
  
• The big move is in two days & everything about our apartment sucks... there are boxes everywhere, both M & I have sore backs and are sleep deprived, and our landlord is sweating us about getting into the apartment to paint (um, our lease technically goes until the end of the month, so back the hell off!). I cannot wait until this move is over; of course, then the fun of unpacking starts, but that's a little less stressful.
  
  
• I saw Legally Blonde the musical last weekend. It was seriously awesome - if you loved the movie, then you must see the musical!!
  
  
• The crappy semester ended on a sour note last Tuesday when I had to bust two plagiarizers. Both students turned in papers they found on the 'net - 100% similar. Neither even bothered to change a few sentences to make it look like they attempted to do some work. They even uploaded the papers to Turnitin, knowing exactly how/why we use that website. Sigh. Oddly enough, I received a friend request on facebook from one of those students the day after I busted her. WTF?
  
  
• My favorite student email from the end of the semester:
  dear mrs. comebacknikki----
  i am not to happy with this papr. im upset because i did not do what i needed to but i did do something. i no i havt been hear for 5 weeks but i have to leave the skool to pick my baby up from daycare and if it is ok with you this is what i have for now.
  
  I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that she failed the class.
  
  
• The summer semester starts tomorrow, but I'm not returning until Monday. I wish it was because I was on some fabulous vacation, but sadly, it's just because of the move.
  
  
• Time to get back to packing... yippee!
  

Welcome to Oldladyville

My surgeon's suggestion (to cure the GI issues):

Sigh.

Cupcakes!

Let Them Cupcakes! class at The Chopping Block with the girls...






Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting, Lemon Coconut with Meringue, and Fudge with Peanut Butter Ganache

Delicious!! :)

Six days sans gallbladder

At this time last week, I was getting ready to meet a friend I hadn't seen in a few months for night of gossip and pasta. Little did I know that a mere eight hours later, I would be doubled over in pain while trying to concentrate on a rerun of Malcolm in the Middle (you know it had to be bad if I was willingly trying to watch that terrible show) in the middle of a overly crowded emergency room. I definitely never would have imagined that I would be subjected to seemingly endless rounds of tests that would stretch far into the next morning... or that by Saturday afternoon, I would be fighting my way out of anesthesia after emergency surgery.

Six days later, I'm definitely doing much better, but I still feel like crap. I can move around fairly well (well, as long as it doesn't involve any bending) and my incisions hurt a hell of lot less than before (they've moved on to the dull ache stage - a definite improvement over the stabbing pain stage). However, my energy level is very low. Even though I've stopped taking the painkillers (which were knocking me out), I still tire easily. On top of that, my stomach is still very unhappy (to put it mildly)... basically, I can't eat anything without some nasty repercussions. *Warning: TMI ahead*

Gallbladder surgery + painkillers (morphine) + antibiotics + Jell-O = constipation
Gallbladder surgery + painkillers (vicodin) + antibiotics + Jell-O & sherbet = constipation
Gallbladder surgery + painkillers (vicodin) + antibiotics + toast & Jell-O + 1/2 dose of Milk of Magnesia = crampy, explosive diarrhea
Gallbladder surgery + antibiotics + chicken noodle soup = diarrhea
Gallbladder surgery + antibiotics + banana = diarrhea
Gallbladder surgery + antibiotics + whole wheat pasta = diarrhea
Etc.

I've heard that once the antibiotics are taken out of the equation, things get better... at this point, I'm not entirely convinced they will (I'm feeling a bit woe is me/down about everything at the moment). I have three days until the end of the antibiotics and the end of the obnoxious breathing exercises. They said I was at risk for pneumonia after the surgery and before I left the hospital, they forced upon me this evil breathing thingie:



I HATE it and cannot wait until I don't have to do the damn exercises anymore!



I also can't wait until my abdomen heals! It's not as bad as it looks (look at how big the bruises are compared to the incisions!), but it still sucks.

[I can't believe I'm willingly posting a photo of my stomach on the internet... obviously, I'm suffering some post-surgery craziness. Um, please ignore the stretch marks.]

Ouch

I was planning on writing a detailed post about what happened to me during the weekend, but I'm utterly exhausted and woozy from my latest round of vicodin, so I'm heading back to bed in a few minutes...

Long story short... on Friday evening I ended up in the ER because of some excruciating stomach pains that were making it hard to breathe. They spent most of the night/morning running tests and after a 5AM ultrasound, decided that I needed surgery (gallbladder removal). Basically, I had an infected gallbladder, which had elevated my white blood cell count & was causing some liver issues. Thankfully, they were able to perform laparoscopic surgery, so there are only three small incisions (I am so glad they didn't have to slice me completely open!) and all of my test results are now back to normal.

I'm home from the hospital now & thankfully, I have M here to help me out (he took some time off from work)... there's still a ton of pain (oh, how I wish I still had that morphine drip!), but I'm managing fairly well, all things considered.